Carle is a wonderful driving instructor! He’s taught 3 of my children so far, and I hope he’s still giving lessons when the rest of my kids are ready. I felt safer knowing my teenagers were driving with him!
How It Works
Steps to Get an Idaho Learner’s Permit
(officially called a Driver Training Permit)
1. Sign up for an Idaho-approved driving school.
2. Make an appointment with the Kootenai County Driver’s License Office: Driver’s License | Kootenai County Sheriff, ID
At your appointment, you will need to ask for a Driver Training Permit for your teen. Your teen must be at least 14 years and 6 months old. You will need the following documents:
a. your teen’s birth certificate
b. your own photo ID
c. a document that shows that you and your teen are Idaho residents (such as a school enrollment record, a lease, a utility bill, or an employment record)
d. your teen’s Social Security card
e. Verification of School Compliance (from your school office; if you are homeschooling, you can sign an affidavit for your teen to satisfy this requirement)
At your appointment, they will ask you what driving school to send the permit to. Tell them Crusader Driving School in Post Falls. Save the photocopy of the permit they give you.
3. Reply to the welcome email you received from Crusader Driving School when you signed up, and include a scan or picture of the permit. Crusader Driving School partners with Brian Johns of Idaho Online Driver Education. Once you have completed your signup with us, he will email you a link to begin the required online course.
4. Your teen must complete all lessons of the online course and pass the final exam. You will receive an email when your teen has passed the course.
5. Once you have received the email confirming that your teen has passed the online course, call us to schedule the required in-car portion of the instruction. Your teen must go through 4 lessons of 1 ½ hours each with our licensed instructor.
6. Once your teen has successfully completed the in-car lessons, the instructor will hand over your teen’s permit to you.
From Learner’s Permit to Driver’s License
The main goals of the teen course offered by Crusader Driving School are to meet the State of Idaho requirements and to give teens the basic preparation they need to be able to drive with their parents. Most teens are not skillful enough to drive on their own after completing our course, and the State of Idaho also has additional legal requirements that teens must meet before they can drive without adult supervision.
Once a teen has a Driver Training Permit, but before they can take the two required tests to get their driver’s licenses (written and road skills tests), Idaho law requires them to complete 50 more hours of supervised driving, and 10 of those hours must be at night. And there is a minimum waiting time of 6 months between the issuing of the Driver Training Permit and the regular driver’s license. In Idaho, any licensed driver over 21 can supervise the teen for those 50 hours. It doesn’t have to be a licensed instructor. In most cases, parents can teach their teens just fine, and they will be able to pass the tests and get their driver’s licenses after 6 months. But there may be reasons you would like your teen to drive some or all of those 50 hours with our licensed instructor. For example, some parents are too busy to get all the hours done within 6 months, but don’t want their teens to have to wait to get their regular licenses. In other families, most of the driving is done with the whole family in the car, and some parents are worried about putting their other children at risk by having a student driver at the wheel. In some cases, parents prefer for their teens to have the benefit of more driving in a vehicle with instructor override pedals. If for any reason you would like any additional driving lessons beyond the State-required hours, we are happy to offer further professional instruction at a rate of $75 per hour.
Stick Shift Training
Our instructor, Carle Mock, has more than 30 years of experience driving vehicles with manual transmissions, and he can help you learn, too. Crusader Driving School requires all students who want to learn to drive a stick shift to already have either a learner’s permit or regular driver’s license before starting their lessons in a vehicle with a manual transmission. Carle can teach you in either his own 2006 VW Jetta TDI or in your vehicle. If your family has a stick-shift vehicle, and you would like your teen to learn in it, Carle can drive to your house and begin and end the lesson there. Teens can sign up for Stick Shift Training immediately after they have passed our Regular Teen Driving Course. Our standard rate of $75 per hour will apply to all stick shift lessons, and both lesson time and instructor travel time will be billed, if you choose that option.
Students Over 17
If you are 17 or older, you do not have to enroll in the Regular Teen Driving Course. You can get an Idaho driver’s license by passing the written and road skills tests, and you will not be required to show that you have completed a driver’s training course. But if you would like some practice, or you want to improve your skills, we will be happy to give you fully customized driving lessons. We can work on any areas in which you would like some help. We can help you practice freeway, rural, mountain, or city driving. If you’d like to do some practice road skills tests before the real thing, we can help with that, too. Our rate for custom lessons is $75 per hour.
Location:
Located in the office of Crusader Income Tax
920 N Spokane Street
Post Falls, ID 83854
208-298-9068
Hours:
SUNDAY: CLOSED
MONDAY: 9AM–5PM
TUESDAY: 9AM–5PM
WEDNESDAY: 9AM–5PM
THURSDAY: CLOSED
FRIDAY: 9AM–5PM
SATURDAY: BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
Holiday Closings:
New Year’s Day
(January 1)
Good Friday
(Friday before Easter)
Memorial Day
(Last Monday in May)
Independence Day
(July 4)
Assumption Day
(August 15)
All Saints Day
(November 1)
Day After Thanksgiving
(Fourth Friday in November)
Immaculate Conception Day
(December 8)
Christmas Day
(December 25)